Cruise ships are floating hotels on the water, often on deep water. If you had to abandon ship you won’t be standing on the sandy bottom of the ocean with your head above water.

I have friends who made it out of the MGM Hotel fire. They are alive because they crawled down a hallway, they crawled backwards down over 10 flights of stairs, and they made it out to tell the story. If they were on a cruise ship I am not sure they would be telling their story.

My husband and I have cruised 3 times. Twice on Carnival, once on Princess, and remember this is all the same corporation. Cruise lines are registered outside the US and maybe this is the reason that the safety measures are not very safe at all.

On Carnival at least we were taken out on the decks where the lifeboats are located so we knew where to go. On Princess our muster station was the casino – I kid you not. AND we were instructed that when we hear the emergency sound we were to immediately go to our cabins and get our life jackets. Really? Does anyone else see a potential problem here? Hundreds of panicked people running up and down stair cases, all of them trying to squeeze into very narrow hallways to get to their cabins? Can you see a huge recipe for disaster and death before getting near a life boat?

Now Royal Caribbean has had a fire at sea.

If it had been a larger fire smoke would have filled the hallways and getting to a cabin for a life jacket would have resulted in horrible consequences. It would have been impossible.

My question is this: how much longer are we going to just go with the flow here and not demand better measures?

This has been a year of cruise ship disasters and if things don’t change there will be more.

Hotel rooms have safety instructions on the door, hallways are wide, sprinkler systems are every where, exits are clearly marked, you have a much better chance and you are not looking out a window (if you have one) at deep water.

We decided after our last cruise that we had taken our last cruise for other reasons but now this reason trumps our decision. You would never get us on another cruise ship destination possible disaster.

A panoramic view of Prince George Wharf, the facility serving passenger cruise ships in Nassau Harbour, off the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. Seen docked along the wharf, left to right, are the MS Carnival Fascination, MS Disney Wonder, MS Carnival Sensation, and Royal Caribbean International’s MS Majesty Of The Seas. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)